Membership 

 We are building a movement - a movement for worker-ownership and workplace democracy but also for broader economic democracy. It's a movement that aims to fundamentally transform society using a more just, sustainable and egalitarian model that puts people before profit. We have a lot of work to do, it won't be easy, and we're going to need a big movement. The more members join the Federation, the bigger our movement will be. The bigger the movement, the more it can do. Exactly what it will do is up to you.

When you join the USFWC now, you help create this movement at a crucial time in its growth. Your involvement will determine the shape of the Federation, the direction of its work and the growth of the worker cooperative movement as a whole.

The Federation is only as strong as its members: we can go farther, faster, together...

Membership has concrete benefits too, like the chance to meet and share ideas and skills with other worker cooperators -- at national conferences of worker cooperatives, in online lists and forums, and working together on committees and projects within the USFWC. Federation members also become part of CICOPA and the international worker cooperative movement. For its members, the USFWC provides information and resources, undertakes research and negotiation on member benefits like pensions and helath plans, and creates working partnerships with allied groups.

Worker cooperatives have built exciting momentum over the last several years, with new co-ops and regional organizations growing. Now is the time to cement and sustain that growth by supporting the first-ever national organization of worker cooperatives. Join us in taking the next step toward the cooperative commonwealth!

Membership in the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives is open to worker cooperatives, other democratic workplaces, developers of worker cooperatives, and allied organizations and individuals who support the worker cooperative model. Read below for member classes.

Member Classes:

Worker Cooperative
Workplaces which are democratically owned and governed by paid workers, meeting the definition set forth in the CICOPA World Declaration on Cooperative Worker Ownership (also known as the Oslo Declaration) . Developers who are organized into worker cooperatives should join as Worker Cooperative members.

Democratic Workplace
Workplaces that are functionally worker cooperatives and which are democratically owned and governed, but which may not meet the definition set forth in the Oslo Declaration. Examples: volunteer-run collectives, workplaces transitioning to worker cooperative status, democratically governed workplaces whose workers do not own shares (often incorporated as nonprofit corporations), democratic ESOPs 100% owned by their workers.

Federation Partner
Associations of three or more democratic workplaces joined together for purposes of mutual aid, for example regional or local groups like NoBAWC, PAWC and VAWC. Federation Partner joins as an organization (individual workplaces join separately).

Cooperative Developer 
Organizations that develop worker cooperative as part or all of their activities. This membership class is for development organizations that are not themselves organized as worker cooperatives. (Developers that are organized as worker cooperatives should join the USFWC as Worker Cooperative Members. Individual developers should join the USFWC as Individual Members unless their affiliated group joins as a whole.)

Startup Workplace
Groups, organizations, or workplaces that are in the process of creating a worker cooperative or democratic workplace. Startup Workplace membership is provisional and will be re-evaluated annually.

Associate Organization
Organizations that support, in theory and practice, the worker cooperative model and the US Federation, but are not themselves worker cooperatives. Examples: consumer cooperatives, housing cooperatives, student worker cooperatives, democratic ESOPs with 51% or greater worker ownership, nonprofit economic justice groups, labor organizations, cooperative lenders, other membership groups, regional federations, and trade associations.

Individual
Individuals who support, in theory and practice, the worker cooperative model and the US Federation.